


the north star

by excelsors



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: M/M, adam wants it bad, but adam wants it, they are not together, this is just fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-04
Updated: 2015-04-04
Packaged: 2018-03-21 07:02:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3682521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/excelsors/pseuds/excelsors
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Adam’s second favorite pastime is not getting caught staring at Ronan. He’s very good at it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the north star

**Author's Note:**

> just a lil thing from tumblr, come visit me @ excelsors

“Ronan?”

“Yeah?” he calls from the nearest barn, doing God knows what.

Adam is lying flat on his back in the damp grass that covers every acre of the barns, squinting up at the sky. He takes a deep breath before he speaks, bracing himself for Ronan’s laughter.

“Do you know which one is the North Star?”

Right on cue Adam hears a sharp bark of laughter echo through the air, but it sounds more pleasantly amused than condescending for once.

“Yeah, I do,” Ronan replies as Adam sits up on his elbows.

He watches Ronan emerge from the barn and close the doors behind him. The other boy wipes his hands on his jeans and turns to face Adam. The moonlight cuts across his face, illuminating the sharp edges of his face and Adam almost loses his breath. But Ronan is looking at him, one eyebrow raised, waiting; he can’t just keep staring.

“Will you show me?” he asks, self-consciously playing with a blade of grass.

He peeks up through his eyelashes to see Ronan roll his eyes, a small smile on his lips. Ronan doesn’t think people see him smile often, but Adam catches him all the time. When he’s feeding Chainsaw, when Blue says something particularly snarky, when Noah agrees to play along with whatever stunt he’s cooked up, when Gansey uses words like “halcyon” and “choler” in every day conversation, when Matthew flashes a dimple. It’s his favorite pastime, trying to catch Ronan’s smile before he tucks it away inside of himself where no one else gets to see.

“Yeah,” Ronan says, his smile gone as he walks towards Adam.

He plops down unceremoniously about a foot away as Adam leans back so that he’s lying flat again. The grass tickles his working ear and his cheek as he looks at Ronan who takes a moment to wiggle around and get situated. He takes a deep breath and Adam reverts his gaze to the sky just a moment before Ronan turns to look at him.

Adam’s second favorite pastime is not getting caught staring at Ronan. He’s very good at it.

Ronan clears his throat and takes a moment to study the sky.

“Okay,” he says, his hand slowly reaching up as he tries to find the right star. It doesn’t take him very long. “There it is.”

Adam follows the outline of his arm towards the sky. He can see where Ronan is pointing, but he can’t see any particular star standing out. Maybe he’s half-deaf and blind.

“Uh, I’m not seeing anything,” he says, squinting harder.

“Seriously?” Ronan says, pointing emphatically in the same direction he was before. “It’s right there.”

“Seriously,” Adam repeats, parroting Ronan’s annoyed tone, “I don’t see anything.”

“Jesus fuck,” Ronan groans, shifting closer to Adam.

He gets close enough that their shoulders brush, sending Adam’s heart rate towards the stars. He compensates for this by keeping his eyes trained on the sky. If he looks at Ronan’s mouth or eyes or Ronan in general right now, it might be game over.

“It’s right there,” Ronan says again, tilting his arm so Adam can see where he’s pointing more easily.

“Oh,” Adam breathes when everything slides into place and his vision locks on the star right above Ronan’s finger.

They’re both silent for a moment as they watch the way the stars move above them until Adam can’t hold it in any longer.

“I thought it would be bigger,” he says, surprising a very geniune laugh out of Ronan. Adam turns at the sound and smiles, trying to explain himself. “No really, it’s the North Star! I imagined some huge, blinding thing that outshines all the other ones. How did people use this for direction? How were they not constantly lost?”

Ronan is full-out laughing now, a hand clenched on his stomach and his eyes crinkled in delight. It’s possibly the proudest moment of Adam’s life. He did that. He made that happen to Ronan Lynch of all people.

He revels in the sound until it fades into a sigh, ushering in a few minutes silence between the two.

Adam spends them all memorizing Ronan’s silhouette. The clean line of his jaw, the shadow of his eyelashes on his cheek, the way his chest rises and falls slowly, so slowly. He’s got his eyes closed and Adam takes advantage of every second he can. He doesn’t get to do this often. He’s greedy.

But before too long, his eyes are fluttering open and Adam is back to looking at the sky. 

He can feel the grass move under him whenever the wind blows, and every once in a while, he’ll catch a star twinkling from millions of miles away. The serenity and quiet of it all makes something push inside Adam’s chest. The proximity of his hand to Ronan’s makes it push harder.

"Thank you," he says out of the blue, still not looking at Ronan. 

"Thank you," he repeats, his hand sliding down from where it rests on his stomach into the grass. "I know that this place is pretty much sacred ground for you so thanks for sharing it with me. Like, thanks for letting me be here. Thanks for bringing me with you, I mean."

He’s stumbling now because their hands are only a few blades of grass away from touching. 

"It’s amazing," he says, "really amazing."

He’s working up the nerve to just move his hand those last few centimeters when Ronan’s fingers slide between his own. It’s a slow and cautious movement and neither of them are watching it happen. Their fingers lace together as gently as the wind blows and neither of them are breathing. 

"Yeah," Ronan whispers, "amazing."


End file.
